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Video Vigilante
Article from Vibe magazine, April 1994. VIDEO VIGILANTE Don't tell Daryl Gates his computer game, Open Season, Is too violent. He's just kickin' reality. The first image of the new computer game Police Quest: Open Season sets a familiarly nightmarish tone: A police helicopter flies through the darkness, searchlights glaring, hunting for a cop-killing serial murderer in the City of Angels. Using state-of-the-art digital photography and advanced interactive software, the hot-selling game — designed by former Los Angeles police chief Daryl F. Gates along with the staff of Sierra On-Line — is. in Gates's words, "as real as you can make it." Since retiring from the force after the L.A. riots, Gates has tried his hand at writing books and hosting radio talk shows, but his new career — video game design — may prove the most controversial yet. In Open Season, you become LAPD detective John Carey, a white cop whose first assignment is to visit a South Central back alley where your (white) partner has been found dead. There you find the body of a (black) six-year-old boy in the dumpster next to your ex-partner's corpse. The object of the game is to track down the killer, which means you must think and act like a member of LA.'s finest. No, you don't get to beat up motorists — but you examine bodies, shove pesky reporters out of the way, and interrogate the local homeboys. most of whom are portrayed hanging out on corners drinking 40-ounces in brown paper bags. If all this isn't real enough, the game even comes with a genuine abridged LAPD manual. Although he is credited as the game's author, Gates says he didn't write the controversial story line; instead, he insisted on changing some material penned by Sierra's Tammy Dargan. a former segment producer for .America 's Most Wanted. In fact, much of the game's script would work nicely on a tabloid TV show. Nonetheless. Gates says Open Season provides a "balanced" view of life in the LAPD. Maybe so, but some of the game's details still hit below the belt. The black youths who are questioned by Detective Carey invariably respond in Amos 'n' Andy-style dialect: "I be Raymond Jones the third," or "Jest out to' some fresh L.A. air." In one unfortunate attempt at hipness, a character states, "Yo, I be fly today." (According to Dargan, all the lingo was inspired by Fab 5 Freddy's Fresh Fly Flavor.) Gates says that the colloquialisms weren't his idea: "I told Sierra that these people use the same language that you and I use. A lot of that was changed. It's not intended to offend anyone." Gates is quick to point out that the game takes place all around the city: not just in South Central, but also in the Valley and West L.A. — "some of the nicest areas of L.A." True, but only in South Central does a young black child run away when Detective Carey says hello. (Sierra says the child will talk to Carey if he flashes his badge.) Gates's participation in a graphically violent video game seems rather ironic, since he's often stated his belief that pop culture — especially TV, movies, and rap music — has led to increased violence in America's streets. "No question, these things have contributed (to the violence]," he says. "Anyone who doesn't think so doesn't know what they're talking about." But doesn't Open Season pander to the same desire for violence? Not according to Gates, who says the violence is there for the sake of realism. Funny, isn't that what Ice-T said about "Cop Killer"? "It doesn't even compare," Gates says. "You don't see violence for violence's sake, like in other games. There's violence because that's real detective work. You gotta have that. You don't shoot people just to shoot people or cut heads off just to cut heads off. We don't have any of those things." No, Open Season doesn't have those things — but it does have Gates himself, in a cameo appearance, intoning, "You find him. and I'll pull the switch!" Now, that's entertainment. Joseph V. Tirella Category:PQ4 Category:Articles